"Oklahoma!""Carousel" "The King and I" coming to UK

You should also put "State Fair" in the title.

Looks nice, though I'm going to wait for both singles and a U.S. release, because R&H is at the top Fox's biggest back catalog properties.

Though I'm a bit worried that the U.S. big box collection of Sound of Music might be holding up the this sort of set's release here.

Lord, if they botch "Oklahoma" again...!

I, too, have had high hopes for these titles (especially an actual restoration of the Todd-AO Oklahoma!), but I hope we get singles stateside so I don't have to rebuy South Pacific and The Sound of Music.

Holding breath for both versions of Oklahoma! and the 1962 remake of State Fair will be included as they were on the DVD's.  Really looking forward to a good transfer of the Todd-AO version of Oklahoma!  With this news and the upcoming Cleopatra, I have flipped-flopped back to a supporter of Fox.    Now where is Hello Dolly! and Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines?

Carousel also had a second 1930s foreign language version included.

I know this won't make me popular, but i would like to see better sound onSound of Music.
I felt the sound was the big problem on the blu ray, with some of the high end gone from thesound, right from the beginning of the film, then getting worse as the film went on !!!
All you have todoislistento the musical numbers on the French audio track to hear the difference.

Heck no, it should not make you un-popular.  I agree with you completely and looking at some of the past posts on the title, we are not alone.  I just don't see a new transfer on this.  In fact I don't see these really released as a collection, but as individual releases over here in the states.  I could be surprised and that would be fine. 

 

 

 

Necessity:
Some sort of restoration on the Todd-AO OKLAHOMA!

Desire:
A better sound track for THE SOUND OF MUSIC (I'm in 100% agreement with Joe Caps on this).

Wold be nice:
Include both the Fritz Lang and Frank Borzage film versions of LILIOM (CAROUSEL's source play)

Pipe dreaming:
Include the entire 13 episode run of ANNA AND THE KING (the sit-com based on THE KING AND I and its progenitors).

Fox DOES have the alternate foreign beginning for South Pacific.

this would be just transferring the opening reel. this used the broadway continuity.

That would cause me to buy it again!

 

That, and having the roadshow version better restored and in HD.

I think another reason "If I Loved You" had to be reshot in California was because Gordon MacRae was rushed into the film (to replace Sinatra) while the company was on location in Maine. He can't even have had time to make any prerecordings, which would make shooting a musical number pretty tough.

Not so. gordon was hired to replace Sinatra immediately. gordon with Alfred newman and the Fox orchestra recorded all of his songs before going to the location in Maine.

In fact, one sectioin called for Julie to sing, but Shirley Jones was already in Maine, so Marni nixon sang one line as a temp track ( and I alays say two heads re better than one to figure it out), but Shirley never did redub the line. Most of the film was shot on location before the weather turned bad.

thats why the Soliloquoy was shot on Zuma beach in California. ( if you see a beach in a fox film, especially in the fifties, it is Zuma beach. that beach is seen in the Robe, Belived Infidel, Journey to the Center of the Earth, In Love and War, and on and on).

I just know Shirley Jones says (in the DVD commentary) that the company was on location in Maine when Sinatra arrived for his first shooting day, asked about the two cameras, and walked off the production. From what you're saying, MacRae must have been called to report to Hollywood immediately to do his pre-recordings while the company shot other things. Listening to his recordings, though, it's hard to believe he was rushed in any way--he's magnificent.

If you notice, the "take" of this line in the film is a different one than on the LP. I wonder if either of them is Shirley?

Greg, you are quite right. Macrae recorded them in one day.

This story of Frank quiting because he found out he would shoot everything twice is a bit stretched. they would certainly have explained to him before he agreed to dothe film, how the film was being shot.


What happened fromcontract to shooting?
Twosources here. Fox vocal director Kendarby said the problems started when prerecording the songs. - Frank was fine on If I LLoved you.
He had commercially recordedthe Soliloquoy before but in a lighter way than was needed for the film, which really required a bigger liegitamate barintone sound. when Frank went to record this version for Fox he kept blowing various notes. So He flew to the Maine location (where the soliloqquoy should have been shot) without having recorded the number.

SecondSource is from a boof about Hollywood filming by producer Henry Ephron, He and his wife wrote many screenplays together. This was first time acting as producer on a film.
Frank Sinatra had been having doubts forsometime that he was right for thepart. Ephron was startingto feel the same way. Ehron knew that Richard Rodgers did not want Sinatra intherole. Ephron mentioned this to Sinatra who immediately packed his bags and left the production.

Damn.

Too bad they didn't license "Flower Drum Song" from Universal to complete the cycle.

Hmm I already have South Pacific on UK Blu Ray. The problem for me at the time was that I had ordered South Pacific & The Robe from Amazon US but when I got them they would not play, along with parts of some Disney Blus on my computer Blu drives. So I got a Blu Ray Recorder from Panasonic but this was on Region B for Blus and the UK did play on that beautifully when I got it. But prior to this I got a local Blu Ray player that plays all Blus with a code on the remote. The Disneys played but the Fox still did not until I got the UK. Amazon, a year or more later, refunded all my costs. Whether I gained or lost thru exchange changes is immaterial. I still have those discs but await a Region B of The Robe as I don't want to trust another Region A one even if I can get it refunded. I was told that the software coding Fox used at the time is the culprit. 

 

South Pacific. I am sure there is a lot more material on this film around. One would be material in the Williamson/R&H files. I have seen a very poor DVD(hard to view) from a 16mm of the London stag show that was commissioned by R&H. I assume they have a superior copy that should get onto the Blu Ray.

 

As a family we saw this on a rerun in a Fox-owned suburban theater(not the one mentioned below) that is now partly demolished and shops and a car park in the shell near were I had for many years. Only time I remember going there. Wow was the volume up high. Got a headache and I was only a kid then. The local cop precinct was next door and I saw a copy getting a "free" view from the back stalls. 

 

Carousel. The French film was issued by Kino with so-so quality with Charles Boyer. The version on the FOX Carousel DVD was superior visually in my view. There are the Fox early 30s versions(2?). There is the Hungarian original, Liliomski & I am not sure of a film made in the Hungary about the same time called, in Engish, Merry Go Round. Although some films made from 1938-45 in Hungary are missing(the film archives were bombed in the closing days of the war in Budapest(1945) and this building was opposite the Danube of which area suffered a fair amount of bombing) these are said to exist and Merry Go Round was shown on Foreign language TV in Australia a good few years ago. 

 

No matter what the Sinatra story really is, he was back for the large format Can-Can with Maurice Chevrolet(my joke) and all was forgiven if anything was to be. 

 

State Fair. I await and await the 1933 Will Rogers version of which I have only seen some restored scenes in FOX documentaries on their company. There was also a 1950s 20th Century-Fox Presents version for TV that contained footage from this 1933 version. I have been awaiting a Blu of the 1945 version believing this will improve even the excellent DVD version(a favorite of mine). Whatever happened to Centennial Summer? Meet Me in St Louis is coming on Blu so it is time for this too.

 

Oklahoma. Gordon was in the original London stage version and on EMI records singing songs from this version. I would love to have essential early recordings added to Blus as an extra.

 

The King & I. I guess the 1940s drama version, Anna & the King of Siam, should be added. I think the Siam depicted in that those films is more appealing to me than the current Thailand. 

 

The Flower Drum Song is a family favorite and we saw this as a family at a Fox owned theater(not a Fox film, I know) about 2 miles from my house when it was on a suburban second run. One and only time we had been in that place and it now a supermarket site we pass often. The Laserdisc I have and it contains the trailer that was not on the DVD. One of the many missing off DVD versions along with overtures on other discs and now we are hearing stuff missing on Blus that had previously been attached to Home Theater versions(VHS, DVD) of good films. I can understand commentary tracks missing due to rights, particularly, if the original disc(Laser) had been a Criterion release under license and they had originally commissioned and paid for a commentary track, but not other material that is not "lost". 

 

Now for a boxet in Blu of choice Fox 1940s musicals in Fox Technicolor. 

Preordering showed up this morning over at Amazon UK

release date seems to be Sept. 2012 !!

No wonder we've heard nothing about it here. If we get a similar release, they'll wait until late spring/early summer to announce it, I suspect.

 

Hopefully this will give them time to do it right and they will be spectacular transfers as SOUTH PACIFIC and THE SOUND OF MUSIC are.  Especially the Todd-AO transfer of OKLAHOMA!